


To Days To Come

by xisuthros



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Future, the doctor meets his future self
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-05-07 02:11:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5439593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xisuthros/pseuds/xisuthros
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Twelfth Doctor and Clara accidentally meet a future incarnation of the Doctor. They both get a small nudge towards living life to the fullest. Set sometimes before Face the Raven.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Days To Come

Just once, it would be nice to visit a planet and not have someone or something try to kill them.

Grabbing Clara’s hand, the Doctor dashed through the market crowd, ignoring her squeak of surprise as he held tight and navigated through the throngs of people to get away from their pursuer. Behind him, he could faintly hear the gasps and shouts of the market customers as he bumped past them. Someone cursed as the Doctor heard the distinct sound of a pot being broken. Their attacker was closing in, he could feel it on the back of his neck. Clara’s pace was frantic as she tried to keep up with the Doctor. 

They rounded a corner only to find themselves at a dead end. The lonesome street on the desert planet seemed to mock them, leaving no avenues or small pathways for them to elude their enemy. Swiveling around, the Doctor pulled Clara behind him as the creature advanced, a growl coming from its throat. 

The being was about eight feet tall and looked to be a mix between a number of different races, its body covered in green scales while its bright red eyes glowered at the pair of them. It stood on all fours, like a prowling tiger, finally having cornered its prey. Pincers were where the mouth should have been while its sinewed shoulders flexed and rippled, preparing to pounce. Behind it, the Doctor could see the tip of a barbed tail, no doubt laced with some kind of poison. Inwardly, the Doctor sighed. He really knew how to get himself into trouble. 

Behind him, he could hear Clara trying to reassure herself. “Okay, okay.” she was saying under her breath. “This is fine. This is good, we’ll find a way out of this.” 

Glancing back at her, he saw her big brown eyes look at him with an undefinable expression. “Won’t we, Doctor?”

“Ah...” he started, racking his brains. In his jacket pocket, his sonic sunglasses were useless, cracked and unresponsive during their initial brush with the creature. They were trapped in an alley that lead to nowhere while a predatory alien monster was closing in on them, ready to eat them alive. 

He honestly had no idea what to do now. Despite himself, he almost chuckled. That didn’t happen often. 

Before he could offer his frankly pitiful reassurances, there was suddenly a familiar sound in the distance. The distinctive drop of the TARDIS and the wheezing groaning that accompanied it came to his ears like the song of an angel. They were saved. In front of him, his ship materialized in between the pair of them and the monster. The creature, apparently frightened by the sudden appearance of the bright blue box, hissed in reluctance at forgoing its prey, and scampered off into another alley, no doubt to await other unsuspecting townspeople. 

As the TARDIS landed, the Doctor suddenly noticed that something was off. It was his ship, with the trademark police telephone box design, but it was different. The pain seemed a little more worn, like it had during the Time War, its once bright blue seemingly duller. As he looked her over, he noticed various scorch marks on the edges, like it had been through a large battle. Something was not right.

Clara seemed to notice the difference as well. “Doctor.” She began hesitantly. “What’s wrong with the TARDIS?”

He stepped closer, his eyes taking in all the damage. “I don’t know.” He answered honestly. “Maybe something nearby caused her to re-enter the Time Vortex suddenly, it happens. Doing so rapidly and without someone inside could be a little rough.” He ran a hand over a particularly rough scorch mark.  
The TARDIS gave a small groan, like it had just run a marathon. The Doctor hesitantly put his hand on the door handle, motioning for Clara to stay close behind him. 

He didn’t know what to expect in there. 

As he slowly opened the door, he was greeted by a fresh burst of smoke to the face, followed by a grumbling voice from near the controls. 

“It figures, the one time I fall asleep at the wheel I end up at HT-547. One of the only planets in the universe where I’m banned from ever returning. And all just because of a silly misunderstanding.” The TARDIS suddenly chimed at the voice. “All right, but in my defense the president did look like a female Sontaran. Was I supposed to lie to her? That suit looked ridiculous.”

Clara looked anxiously at the Doctor, who had suddenly frozen. It was all starting to make sense. Looking back at her, he could see her start to put it together as well. They needed to get out of there now. 

Just their luck, as they attempted to sneak back out of the ship the door creaked loudly, causing whatever noise was coming from the controls to suddenly stop. The Doctor waited with bated breath before he was suddenly being slammed into the wall, with one of his hands twisted behind his back. 

The voice from before growled in his ear. “What are you doing on my ship? How did you get in here?”

The Doctor grimaced under the tight hold of his assailant and looked over at Clara, who was trying to pull the other person off him. 

“Leave him alone, it was an accident!” She said, and suddenly the Doctor could feel his arms being loosened. 

He turned around and was greeted by the sight of a man who looked to be in his early thirties, with cropped brown hair whose length stuck up at various points on his head. He was dressed in dark pants and suspenders, with a dirty blue dress shirt rolled up at the sleeves. His eyes were strikingly blue with an angular but not unhandsome face, a small amount of scruff lining his jawline. 

But as he looked at Clara, the Doctor could see recognition followed by what could only be described as immeasurable sadness pass over his face. That look was extremely familiar, one he had seen many times in the eyes of many of his past companions. Despite his current unkempt appearance, the man seemed to have an aura of immense age and experience. The Doctor didn’t need to be a genius to know that he was also a Time Lord. 

The man standing in front of them was a future version of the Doctor himself. 

Future Doctor looked at Clara and then at his younger self incredulously. “But...how?...I don’t....what?!” His expression was one of utter befuddlement.  
Clara, for her part, once she got over the shock of realizing who this new Doctor was seemed relatively calm. She looked at her Doctor before turning to the future one. “We didn’t meant to come barging in like this. It was an honest mistake.” Her voice took the tone that was normally reserved for when the Doctor was in one of his aggravated moods. 

The effect on the other Doctor was immediate. It was as if he had just stepped into a very old but pleasant memory, one that he had longed to return to. He closed his eyes briefly before addressing them both. 

“My apologies.” he said, reaching to grasp the Doctor’s arm good-naturedly. “This is just all sort of a shock, I mean, I don’t remember any of this. And none of this is doing the old girl any favors. Two of us in the same TARDIS are bound to cause some paradox effects soon enough.” He looked them over. 

“Where are you now?” He asked. “Investigating the common nightmare theory? Gone to see Davros yet? Oh, tell me you’ve stopped the Zygon rebellion?” 

Clara nodded. “We’re on Hiltonit right now, just got done being chased by a giant scaly bug-monster.” At both of their raised eyebrows, she put her hands on her hips and gave them her best exasperated look. “Well, if you aren’t going to name it...”

The current Doctor looked around the interior of the TARDIS for the first time, seeing that it had once again changed. Instead of the current refined design, this control room seemed to be disoriented and much like his previous incarnation’s. The walls were decorated by various symbols and fixtures while the controls itself were an assortment of various instruments and buttons, with one of them being a toy lightsaber that housed what he supposed was the shielding drive. The whole room was filled with smoke as various alarms flashed, signaling problems with the old vessel.

“Oh, you’ve redecorated.” he observed. “I don’t like it.”

Beside him, he could sense Clara stifling a grin as the future Doctor bristled. 

“Oi, you can keep your opinions to yourself. I let the TARDIS have free reign over this layout; she just seemed to want a little bit of everything.” Still, he looked around the room anxiously, as if worried it didn’t match up to the old Doctor’s standards. 

Stepping forward, the current Doctor made his way to the controls and looked at the various lights flashing and examined the monitors. Much of the temporal energy within the TARDIS matrix had been zapped from the system. Only severe jump in time could have done this, usually when the shields weren’t activated. 

He glowered at the future Doctor, who seemed to know exactly what he was thinking. “Yes, I did enter the Time Vortex without proper shielding, but in my defense so would you if ten thousand battleships suddenly decided to use you for target practice. I’m good, but that’s just suicide.” 

“What were ten thousand battleships doing chasing you around? What have you done this time?” Apparently his future self still possessed the knack of getting himself into trouble. He resigned himself to the fact that it will probably always be this way.

“Remember our little banishment from HT-547?” he asked, to the current Doctor’s grimace. “Yeah, we may have accidentally showed up there unannounced.”

“When will I learn?” sighed the current Doctor.

The future one grinned mischievously. “Hopefully not too soon.” Clara seemed amused by their banter. 

“Can we do anything to hep fix it?” She offered. 

The future Doctor shook his head. “I just need to giver her time. Once she fuels up, I’ll reboot the shields and do a precautionary diagnostics run on her, see if that clears it up. If all goes well, I’ll be gone in a few hours.” He looked between the pair of them. “You two need to get on out of here.” he said. “The TARDIS is having a hard time compensating for us all being in the same room. You should probably get back to yours. Not that it isn't fun to catch up.” He added with a grin that Clara returned. 

The current Doctor nodded and the three of them made their way back down the stairs and out the door. As they turned to say goodbye, the Doctor had a sudden thought.

“What old are you now?” he asked, curious.

The future Doctor blew out a breath as he seemed to contemplate the answer. “Oh, I’m not entirely sure. I can’t remember if I’m basing my age on Earth years, Gallifreyan years, or just any old time standard depending on where I am in the universe. I think last count by Earth years I’m around thirty-seven billion years old.” 

Both Clara and the Doctor gasped.

“Thirty-seven billion?” exclaimed Clara. She looked back at the current Doctor, who was looking at his future self with an unreadable expression on his lined face. “What happened? Last time I checked, you were only two thousand.”

The future Doctor smiled wistfully. “Ah, but even then I was lying about my age. In my early years I would loose track of how old I was all the time. Sometimes I would just start again when I forgot. In your regeneration, I must be must older that I claim to be.” The current Doctor agreed solemnly. 

“At some point, age becomes moot for Time Lords.” He observed, causing his future self to chuckle.

He looked at the pair of them suddenly with an expression that caught Clara off guard. The way he looked at her was filled with intensity, like he wanted to memorize every feature before they parted ways. She knew that perhaps by this time in the Doctor’s life she must died. There was no other way she would ever leave him. She  
couldn’t contemplate a life without her Doctor, and only death seemed to be able to separate them now. 

“Doctor.” Clara asked cautiously, looking at the future incarnation suddenly. “How did it happen?” She knew he understood her meaning because his expression just became more sad.

The current Doctor quickly cut in. “Don’t tell us. As you know, telling us our future will cause it to be a fixed point in time. Judging by that look, I’m hoping for some leeway in the future.” At this, the future incarnation just looked unimaginably old, and Clara was reminded of the Doctor. He had already suffered so much loss and heartbreak, one could only imagine what this future version had gone through. Her heart broke for him.

“For your sake, I hope you can.” The future Doctor replied to his younger self, smiling sadly. “Just know this; do not take any time for granted. Appreciate every moment that comes your way, because it is a gift. One that will someday be missed terribly.” At this, his eyes started to glisten.

Instinctively, Clara stepped forward and enveloped the future Doctor in a tight embrace. No matter what face he wore, whether past, present, or future, he was still the Doctor. He was still the person she loved. She smiled when he returned her embrace. Obviously this regeneration enjoyed hugging a bit more than the present one. 

She was going to have to work on that, amongst other things. 

Separating, the current Doctor reached out his hand. After considering it and having a reminiscing expression on his face, the future Doctor took it and smiled. 

“You know, I really miss being you.” He said quietly. “Even though I looked like an old gray-haired stick insect with furious eyebrows, I loved being you. There was never a dull moment. I’m still amazed at the things we did and frankly astonished that I got away with some of them.” He smiled and cast a sidelong glance at Clara.  
“Even though he hates to admit it, he does love the hugging. He just puts up a show because he’s embarrassed.” At this, Clara laughed while the current Doctor’s face flushed.

“Awwww.” She said, leaning over and wrapping her arms around his thin body. “Who knew you could be so sensitive, Doctor?” At his pained grimace, she just held him tighter and looked at him with a soft expression. At their exchange, the future Doctor seemed to become wistful and had a longing expression on his face.

He smiled before looking serene and full of the wisdom of his time. “I hope you love these adventures you have, Doctor.” He said softly. “Because one day you’ll look back and wish them all back. Don’t waste a single moment.” The last request came out almost as a plea, the future Doctor’s gaze shifting ever so slightly to Clara, who seemed to understand.

Nodding to each other, the current Doctor smiled slightly. “Don’t fall asleep at the wheel.” He said, gesturing to the TARDIS. “I’d like to have a future someday.”

The future incarnation stepped into the door and grinned at him. “My friend, you have no idea.” With that, he waved at them after looking one more time at the pair of them. He then stepped inside the TARDIS, closing the doors with a snap of his fingers.

The walk back to their own TARDIS was full of a weight that seemed to be on the tip of both Clara and the Doctor’s tongues. It was difficult for both of them to express how they feel. Clara was never great at voicing her emotions and preferred to simply show them while the Doctor was not great at either. 

Reaching their familiar blue box, the Doctor settled for a simple gesture. Taking her hand, he paused before entering and looked down at her, not for the first time marveling at how her eyes seemed to enrapture him.

“So, what’ll it be this time?” he asked, his voice trying to convey all the feelings that he so often kept bottled inside of his heart.

Clara seemed to understand, because she tightened her grip on his hand and gazed at him for a moment with an expression that was filled with nothing less than pure adoration. “Wherever it is, I’ll just be happy to be there with you.”  
His expression melted her heart. 

“Just the Doctor and Clara Oswald in the TARDIS?” he asked with a mischievous smile that looked eerily like the one the future Doctor wore.

She smiled up at his face, so full of hope and wonder. 

“God yeah.” Clara agreed, and with a bound an a laugh on her part he swept her inside and they disappeared into the air, that familiar sound echoing in the desert air.


End file.
